


never loved one like you

by sobistars



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Moving In Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-06-30 18:57:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15757722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sobistars/pseuds/sobistars
Summary: dotae moving in together// Ah, home, let me go homeHome is wherever I'm with you //





	never loved one like you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kuroosuno](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuroosuno/gifts).



> this is an epilogue to a social media au i wrote and posted on twitter. this is for rachel, who worked on this au with me, and whom i love to spoil with all the sappy domestic love she loves. thanks for believing in my abilities, and listening to all my writing-related breakdowns. also thank you to ellé, who has supported it and loved it since we started it.
> 
> i hope everyone else enjoys too.
> 
> here's the au, if you'd like to read that too :  
> https://twitter.com/sobistars/status/1004594398733197313
> 
> otherwise, you can just enjoy this as a standalone fluffy domestic mess.
> 
> title from 'Home' by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros.

“Last box incoming!” Lucas’ voice booms from the corridor; the door to the apartment propped open with a bag of Doyoung’s books. They’re mostly old textbooks and journals he doesn’t need but can’t bear to throw away. Taeyong has promised they’ll find a place for all of them, even though he himself has a pretty large manga collection to find a place for in their brand-new home. Doyoung smiles thinking about it.

They live together now, it’s weird.

It’s a nice apartment; small, but open. The walls are white, which makes Doyoung think of the hospital with a sad tang. It’s stupid, really, that his memories are getting triggered by something so simple. And it’s not like he’ll never seen another hospital again; he starts work early Monday morning. This new place has white walls, like the last one. Same tiled floor. Maybe even a nosey receptionist to make him feel at home.

Feeling fidgety, Doyoung goes about moving boxes into the bedroom. He, Taeyong, Lucas and Jungwoo have been moving things in all day, and he’s starting to feel tired. He’s ready to eat and settle down for an early night. He might even skip dinner and collapse on their new bed the minute Lucas and Jungwoo leave. He shouldn’t though; he hasn’t even put fresh sheets on the bed yet (they’d bickered about the colours of their new bedspread, and he’s still not over losing to Taeyong- he doesn’t _want_ red sheets).

Lucas had requested they get a spare bedroom for when he and Jungwoo visited, but Taeyong had merely flicked him on the forehead and told him no. As it happens, they _do_ have a second bedroom. But Taeyong has been talking about turning it into an office for Doyoung; somewhere quiet for him to read and work. Taeyong is so excited about the new place, Doyoung wonders how it can possibly live up to all of his boyfriend’s expectations.

“Listen, I’m not saying The Last Airbender is an anime, but I just think it’s on par with a lot of animes that I’ve seen, and succeeds even more of them-”

Doyoung smiles a little, hearing Taeyong’s bestfriend’s deep voice talk animatedly about a subject he knows is probably driving him crazy.

“You’re just saying this to piss me off, Lucas,” Taeyong replies irritably, “stop goading me.” Doyoung hears Lucas snigger, and then a moment later, a smack, followed by Jungwoo giggling. 

“You’re meant to be on my side, Woo!” Lucas moans.

“You’re meant to be nice! It’s a stressful day for him.”

“I know, I know, becau-”

“Doyoung?” Taeyong shouts, suddenly.

“Here!” he says, without thinking. “Bedroom,” he adds on.

The smile he gives Taeyong when he enters the room is returned in full; a big cheesy grin that Doyoung has been seeing a lot of today. “You okay?”

Doyoung nods. “Just sorting out things. Too many boxes. I’m trying to find the bedsheets, I want to nap, I think. Before dinner.”

“I’ll help you look.” He's so quick to help, always so quick to do what he can to make Doyoung's life easier. 

“We’ll just hang out, then. Make-out on your sofa while we wait for you!” Lucas shouts from the living room, and Taeyong rolls his eyes.

“No stabbing in the new apartment, please,” Doyoung says. Taeyong snorts as he grabs one of the boxes and starts to dig through it. Doyoung follows suit, and roots through his own box, albeit half-heartedly. He’s feeling lethargic, and simply cuddling up on an unmade made with a blanket seems a lot more preferable to looking through boxes right now.

“Please let that die, it was over two years ago now,” Taeyong moans, and Doyoung laughs. He doesn’t bring it up much anymore, not as much as Lucas does anyway, but it’s fun every so often. He leaves it long enough to make Taeyong thing he’s forgotten, then brings it on him again when he thinks he’s safe.

“Ah, only that long? I still remember bumping into you in that coffee shop and telling me all about it.” Doyoung dodges the cushion thrown at him, and then picks it up and places it on the bed. “Stop disordering the house before it’s even ordered.”

“There’s faulty logic in there somewhere.”

“There’s faulty logic in your brain.”

“Hah.” That's how he knows Taeyong has no more comebacks.

Doyoung smiles to himself, having won the bickering for that round. Even when it’s a joke, they keep a tally of who wins what every week, then whoever loses buys the dinner on Friday (date night). Doyoung supposes every night will be something like date night, now that they live together. They'll eat together a lot more, snuggle up and watch tv late into the nights that Doyoung doesn't have to work ridiculous night shifts, and Taeyong doesn't have an early start at his new job at the photography studio. Perhaps, on the nights Doyoung does have to work, Taeyong will sit up and wait for him, until the early hours of the morning, just to say hello and kiss the tiredness out of him. He'd done that a lot when Doyoung had given him the key to his old apartment a year ago, just let himself in and waited. The memory makes Doyoung smile more.

“Aw, look what I found…”

Looking up from his box (filled with shoes, he’s barely been trying to find these damn sheets he can't be _bothered_ anymore), Doyoung groans when he sees what Taeyong is holding up.

“Why did you pack that, I told you to get rid of it.”

“It’s so cute though!” Taeyong giggles, pulling out the matching ears to the bunny costume Doyoung wore to the Easter charity party, two years ago.

“Ty…”

“The kids made it for you!” Taeyong says, holding it up high above his head so Doyoung can’t see his face anymore. “Why would you want to throw it away?”

“I’m not saying throw it away. I’m saying leave it in a box. Store it somewhere.”

“Where are we going to store it? We don’t exactly have tonnes of room to spare in here.”

“I just don’t want to have to see it everyday…”

Doyoung knows there’s a pout on Taeyong’s face before he’s even poked his head round the material. It’s not a bad costume, really. The kids had worked hard on it, and he’d loved it at the time. He’d watched Jisoo and Hyerin learn to sew on those ears, had had to break up a fight between Sanha and Myungjun over the patch of felt on the right knee. Each one of them had had a hand in making the costume. Even Seoyun, who had been so weak after her operation that her contribution had been limited to a single doodle in pink marker; a shaky heart on the left side.

He doesn’t want it gone, not really. There is no way he could give it up, say goodbye to it. Not when the goodbyes he’d already said to each of the kids had been strenuous enough.

When he’d told them he was leaving the hospital to live and work somewhere else, he’d expected a few sad faces, maybe even a few tears. What he hadn’t expected was a full-scale protest on the children’s ward. Those that could write their names had signed a petition; Doyoung had noticed Seoyun’s signature pink scribble, she was doing a lot better with her letters now. The whole affair had made Doyoung smile, until he remembered it was because he was leaving…

As soon as Doyoung starts to feel the tears form, Taeyong is there; dropping the costume in the box and rushing over to hug him. Doyoung had never known he was a nuzzly person, someone who liked to be cuddled and squeezed and fawned over, before Taeyong. He’d hugged the kids a lot; hugged all their stresses and hurts away. He’d hugged them to reassure them that the person looking after them cared. That they were in good hands. He’d hugged them for them.

When Taeyong hugged him, it was like finally receiving one of those hugs back. He’d loved the kids, really. But they were young, didn’t understand the weight of his job, his life. Taeyong isn’t a doctor, doesn’t know all the ins and outs of what Doyoung has to do and see, but he listens. Even when he doesn’t understand, it only takes a hug from him, a full, warm, grab around Doyoung’s waist, to ease his mind.

Doyoung feels himself cry, burrowing his face into Taeyong’s neck and feeling the way his boyfriend sways them ever so slightly, as if rocking them both to sleep. Doyoung is _so_ tired he's not sure where the tears are coming from. He's sad about the kids, he's exhausted. So many big thingd are happening, and he feels like he can't catch his breath. He feels like dropping, melting into the ground. Letting go of the busy, busy day. “Sorry, I didn’t want to ruin move-in day-”

“You didn’t.”

“It’s just a lot-”

“I know."

“And I’m still pissed off that we have red sheets.”

Doyoung feels rather than hears Taeyong’s laughter. He smiles when he feels Taeyong pinch him through his t-shirt, and before he knows it he’s laughing too.

“Guys! We’re gonna get going if you don’t need any more help!” Taeyong pulls away a little at Jungwoo’s voice and turns to the door to shout back.

“Out in one sec!” he calls back. He turns back to Doyoung, holding him out at arms length for inspection. “You okay?”

Doyoung nods, sniffing, rubbing his eyes on Taeyong's flannel shirt. “Fine, fine. Just caught in the moment. Let’s go say goodbye.”

“You say that like one of us is dying, they're only 45 minutes away. We’ll be seeing them both next week. We’re taking them out to dinner.”

“Yeah… I’ll miss them though. It’ll be weird not living really close to them, I’ve grown attached."

At that, Taeyong smirks. “Kim Dongyoung, my loving boyfriend, are you perhaps, fond?”

“Fonder than I am of you,” Doyoung replies, kissing Taeyong’s cheek as he passes him. “I love you, though.”

When they go through to the living room, Doyoung notices how flushed Jungwoo is, and Lucas’ mussed up hair, and puts two and two together. 

“You two are gross,” Taeyong says behind him, and Doyoung laughs.

“What?" Lucas says, feigning an offended voice and putting his hand on his chest. "We didn’t really do anything. Jungwoo was too scared," he adds, sniggering.

Even Lucas laughs when Jungwoo swats him on the arm for the second time that evening; a big cheesy grin on his face whilst his boyfriend blushes to oblivion. In the last two years, Jungwoo has blossomed into a brilliant Doctor, so serious and passionate about his work, but he’s still got that soft, plushy edge that makes him endlessly likeable. Doyoung hadn’t expected to develop a friendship with him, but now he finds Jungwoo being one of his favourites. Apart from Taeyong, of course. Taeyong gets pride of place.  

“You sure you don’t want to stay for dinner? I could cook, Taeyong is the rice maker in the kitch-”

“Let’s order in! I want Chinese food.” Doyoung is stunned as Taeyong cuts across him.

“Okay..." he says slowly, eyeing Taeyong, who merely smiles. He turns back to Lucas and Jungwoo, "do you two want Chinese?”

Lucas answers first, a hurried "I love Chin- Ow!"

“Chinese sounds great, Hyung," Jungwoo cuts across, having thumped Lucas in the stomach for seemingly no reason, "but we should get going,” he says with a smile.

Doyoung narrows his eyes, suspicious of the jumpy behaviour, and the smile Lucas is giving Taeyong through the prickles of tears, clutching his stomach.

“Okay, Chinese for two then," Taeyong says, clapping his hands together. "Bye, you two.” 

The younger couple smile, and Lucas offers Taeyong a high five. Taeyong narrows his eyes.

“Bye, Doyoungie-Hyung,” Jungwoo smiles again, pulling a still grinning Lucas through the open front door. “Taeyong-Hyung.”

"That really hurt, you ass," Doyoung hears Lucas complaining down the hall.

"You were being so _obvious,"_ Jungwoo replies, "I'll kiss it better when we're home."

Once they’re gone, Taeyong seems to breathe a sigh of relief, moving to close the door. Doyoung rounds on him. “What was that all about?”

“What?” Taeyong says innocently, though he looks less than so.

“They were being weird.” 

“Were they? Didn’t notice. Wanna watch a movie?” Taeyong says quickly, moving around boxes labelled ' _Papa's_ weeby _shit_ ' (Lucas had been in charge of the sharpie) to set-up their brand new tv.

“I guess…" Doyoung says, not moving from the door. He turns to watch Taeyong move. "You were being weird too.”

“Ah, you’re just sleepy." Taeyong won't look at him. "You wanna nap and I’ll order the food?”

“No." Doyoung snaps himself out of being suspicious, it feels like too much work right now. "No, I’ll be fine. I’ll order it. Put a movie on." 

Taeyong nods, and beams when Doyoung narrows his eyes again.

“You’re all bizzare,” he concludes, making his way to the kitchen to find the take-out menus that the landlord has left on the counter for them. The room, like the rest, is full to the brim with boxes. Doyoung sighs at the placement of them all; far too many in the doorway when there is plenty of space towards the fridge and stove. He supposes Lucas was in charge of kitchen boxes.

Spotting the menus, Doyoung goes about ordering the food. The order he rattles off without thinking, knowing by now what Taeyong likes. Which is to say, everything. He likes feeding Doyoung best, which always makes Doyoung shy but amused. Sometimes, Taeyong will cram so much food into his mouth that he’ll choke and laugh, and then Lucas will say something inappropriate and everyone will hit him and Taeyong will blush furiously. Doyoung isn't sure he could bear all that tonight, but he wouldn't say no to Taeyong feeding him.

After confirming his order, Doyoung looks for the box he’d packed the plates into. He remembers vaguely placing them in with the rice maker, though that doesn’t help when he’s staring at about seven, identical brown boxes, unmarked except for ‘kitchen crap’ being written on them in black sharpie. _Thanks, Lucas_ , Doyoung thinks bitterly, _big help._ Doyoung sighs. He’s so, so tired. 

“Doyoungie?” Taeyong calls, and Doyoung’s heart does a tiny flip. The sweet tone almost rejuvenates him.

“I’m just grabbing the plates,” he half-shouts back. Sighing, he goes about opening boxes and scouring their contents, praying that the first box he opens is the right one.

As luck would have it, it’s not until the last box that Doyoung finds the box he’s look for. He begins to root through it, groaning when he realises the plates are all the way at the bottom. He pulls out tea towels, and the rice maker, going to set them on the counter. He stops when he hears the rice maker rattle. He puts the tea towels back in the box and sets the machine on the table, hoping nothing is broken. The machine had been brand new, a move-in/ leaving present from Johnny and Jaehyun.

Once open, he peers inside to find nothing wrong, but a small box sitting at the bottom. Brows furrowed, he fishes out the box and holds it in his palm. It’s black velvet, and the size tells him it’s definitely a jewellery box of some sort. Not his own, definitely not his own. He frowns, flipping it open and gasping a little at its contents; a silver band ring, a diny diamond set at the centre. Holding it closer, Doyoung reads the inscription on the inside, a date he doesn’t recognise;

 

_16.07.18_

 

“You weren’t meant to find that.”

 

Doyoung jumps at Taeyong’s voice, snapping the box closed and looking up. Taeyong is standing in the doorway, looking at the box. He’s not smiling, but he doesn’t sound angry. Doyoung's heart drops a little. 

“I guess I should have hid it better. I just didn’t want to be carrying it around, and I didn’t want to put it in one of the bedroom boxes that I knew you’d going through tonight. So when we got here, I just threw it in there.”

“Taeyong-”

“I had this like, massive speech prepared. It was going to be really good and dramatic and you were going to cry, and I was going to cry and-”

“Taeyong…” Doyoung is starting to well up. He can feel it; the stinging just at the back of his eyes. “Are you really asking me-” 

Taeyong’s nod cuts him off. For a moment, they both stand there. Taeyong stuck in the doorway behind piles of boxes, Doyoung stuck on the other side, looking between his boyfriend and the ring box in his hand. He’s not sure what to do, what the etiquette is for this sort of thing. Traditionally, it’s meant to be different, he knows that. Someone is meant to be on one knee, asking the question. The other, standing in front, not yet holding the ring. Crying, and saying yes. 

Doyoung secretly much prefers this way. This stupid, hilarious, mistake.

“Do you want to?”

“Yes,” Doyoung answers, without thinking. Without having to think, even for a moment. “Yes I do, very much so.”

"Just to be clear, this is a proposal. I'm asking you to marry me. Like, forever-boyfriends type deal."

Doyoung laughs, feeling delirious, deliriously tired and worn-out and happy. So, so happy. He nods, can't stop nodding. Can't stop confirming his answer to the question Taeyong is asking him. They race forward at the same time, Taeyong crashing into boxes to make his way to Doyoung. Doyoung hisses when he hears something smash, but forgets it when he’s in Taeyong’s arms, his eyes definitely wet now.

Taeyong fumbles to grab Doyoung’s hands and pry the box from them. Doyoung almost can’t let go, almost can’t bear the be separated from it. He does, though, and Taeyong wrenches it open and carefully takes out the ring, holding it up. The way he’s meant to. 

“I-urm. Should I do the speech? Do you want the speech? It’s just a lot of me saying how much I love you and how better my life is for knowing you and how happy I am to-” 

“Taeyong, yes. The answer is yes,” Doyoung rushes, exasperated but so, so fond. “And I love you,” he adds, laughing at how messy the whole thing is.

Taeyong laughs too, crying harder than even Doyoung, trying to calm himself enough to place the ring on Doyoung’s finger. Doyoung clenches his fist once it’s on, testing the feeling of being engaged, properly, grown-up and binding engaged. He’s been a doctor for over seven years, lived in his own place for over six, and yet real-life has never hit him quite this hard. He’s in love, he’s engaged. He’s living with the man he loves. They’re going to get _married._

It’s a thought worthy of another cry, this one sheltered in the crook of Taeyong’s neck, in the middle of their crowded, tiny kitchen, surrounded by big stupid boxes with stupid sharpie doodles all over them.

 

* * *

 

 

“Why the sixteenth?” Doyoung asks, later. They’ve finished eating, the empty plates left in the sink for one of them to deal with later. Probably Taeyong, he can’t stop apologising for messing up his own proposal, even though Doyoung keeps insisting it was his fault for snooping (in his own rice cooker, but right now, with how happy he is, he wouldn’t blame Taeyong for a single thing).

“Hmm?” Taeyong is watching the film they’d neglected watching whilst eating their food; too busy talking and crying and kissing and crying more. They’ve settled down now, though they’re still glued to each other, Doyoung’s left leg over Taeyong’s right and his head on Taeyong’s shoulder, tiredness finally catching up to him again after the burst of exhileration that being proposed to had given him. 

Doyoung squeezes their tightly clasped hands, turns them to signal he’s talking about the ring. “The inscription, the sixteenth of July, I don’t recognise it.” 

“Oh,” Taeyong says in a shy voice, squeezing back. “That was the day you took me to Lotte World.”

“Oh god.” Doyoung lifts his head from Taeyong’s shoulder and looking at him. “You remember that?”

“Well, yeah…” Taeyong sounds in embarrassed. It’s cute. “That day meant a lot to me. I would have put the date we went official, but it was kinda up in the air for a while, you know? Because of… everything.”

Doyoung nods, remembering the messy way in which they’d fallen in love with each other. Perhaps that’s how everything they have is destined to be; messy. Doyoung can’t say he minds.

“I went with that date because you told me, after, that that was the day you realised you liked me. And to be honest, it was probably the day I fell in love with you.”

Doyoung chokes a little and Taeyong wipes the tear from his eye. He’s lost track of how many times he’s cried tonight.

“Even then?”

Taeyong nods earnestly. 

“Even then.”

  


**Author's Note:**

> i love them, your honour
> 
> talk to me on twitter, @ sobistars
> 
> rest well and stay healthy, friends


End file.
